THE GLEANERS AND I

THE GLEANERS AND I (LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE), 2000
France | DCP, Color, 82 min | French
Actors: François Wertheimer, Agnès Varda, Bodan Litnanski

Agnès Varda, who travelled throughout France to come together with gleaners, collectors and inventors in order to make this film about those who, from need, choice or chance, gather what others have thrown away. The worlds these people inhabit shake the viewer profoundly, because these people who we find strange or destitute, and who we pity, live in a world that is moving and full of surprises. Varda takes the lives of ordinary people as her subject and uses cinema to do what a social scientist does by examining social relationships, looking from the bottom upwards. Varda, who sees film-making as an act of collecting, takes us on a voyage through the world of gleaners, reminds us once again that curiosity has no age limit.